


I Will Only Slow You Down

by icewhisper



Series: Holiday Cheer & Tears [9]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, M/M, Permanent Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-15 05:47:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16927584
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/icewhisper/pseuds/icewhisper
Summary: “I don’t want you involved,” he told Mick when Lewis came around again. “In and out. I’ll be back in a week.”It wasn’t.He wasn’t.





	I Will Only Slow You Down

“I don’t want you involved,” he told Mick when Lewis came around again. “In and out. I’ll be back in a week.”

It wasn’t.

He wasn’t.

He’d known it was a horrible plan from the start and he’d tried to subtly push his father towards better routes and strategies the way he used to, but Lewis didn’t bend to them the way he used to. Careful urgings were met with fists and threats against Lisa. He shook under his father’s hand as stoicism gave way to fear. Lisa already had an ugly scar he hadn’t been able to protect her from. He couldn’t risk her ending up with more.

So he stayed silent. He nodded along with a plan he knew was doomed to fail and started thinking up contingencies and escape routes. If he could get out before Lewis and get himself clear, he could get back to Central in time to deal with the social services woman that came by the house every time their father got arrested. Some smiles and some money and Lisa would stay out of the system.

It went the way he expected it to with faulty timing and a third con that Len hadn’t trusted for a second. He’d seen the double-cross coming the moment he laid eyes on the man.

He hadn’t expected the man to be a good shot.

He sure as hell hadn’t expected to get hit.

Len went down with a cry, nails scratching against a dirty floor, and watched his father leave him behind. Money gone and sirens coming and blood leaking out of his back. He croaked a name that might have been Mick’s or might have been Lisa’s, but also might have just been a curse. He wasn’t sure, but his world faded to black and it didn’t matter anymore.

 

 

He woke up in a hospital room with Mick beside him, pale and haggard. Dark circles made the space under his eyes look bruised and, this time, Len knew it was Mick’s name he choked out. Hands touched his cheek as lips pressed against his forehead in something that was too tender for what they did.

That bad, then.

He turned his head away, anxiety building. He couldn’t deal with touch right then and Mick understood to back off. His partner hovered by the bed instead, hands shoved deep in his pockets so he wouldn’t reach out. He could see Mick’s right hand shifting in his jean pocket steadily, probably stroking over his lighter to keep himself calm.

“Lisa?”

“School,” Mick replied. “I paid off the social worker when she came around. You… Fuck, Len, you should have let me in on this. If I’d been there-”

“You couldn’t have done anything.”

“It was a three-man job,” Mick told him roughly. “You, me, and that bastard, you never would have needed that other guy. Cops got him, by the way.”

Len didn’t comment on the edge in Mick’s voice that said the man wouldn’t last long. They’d have to restart their rainy day fund after whatever his partner spent on that hit. “Lewis?”

“In the wind.”

Len nodded and let out a controlled breath as he tried to rein himself back in. He shifted to try and push himself up and his heart dropped into his stomach. “I can’t feel my legs.”

A shuddering breath and Mick dragged a hand over his face. “I know, Lenny. I know.”

 

 

Paraplegic. Paralyzed from the waist down. He listened to the doctors talk about nerve damage and shattered vertebrae, biting back reminders that he dropped out of school at fourteen. It didn’t matter. End of the day, he was paralyzed. No movement. No sensation. He wasn’t going to walk again and no amount of physical therapy would fix it.

Mick wore one of the rings they’d snatched from their first job, lied, and called himself Len’s husband when the doctors came asking. A few went icy at it. Mick didn’t care. Len was too numb to care or even point out that it wasn’t even legal, that the best they could probably claim was domestic partner. It didn’t matter. He listened to Mick talk about wheelchairs and somewhere accessible.

Not a safe house, he realized dully somewhere along the way. A house. The one Mick had found was nowhere near Central – nowhere near _Lisa_ , Mick, what were you thinking? – but... Oh. Right. Len had enemies, the same ones who wouldn’t let honor among thieves keep them from taking him out when he couldn’t run away.

It was a nice house, an updated ranch style in a town just outside Boston, because paralyzed or not, Len needed a city. He lived and breathed cities. He’d sooner shoot himself than live in the country or on a farm.

He didn’t think Mick had the heart to put him out to pasture like that either.

“Lisa’s almost eighteen,” Mick told him while Len panted in the aftermath of a physical therapy session. “I made a deal with the social worker. She’s gonna push through the paperwork to put Lisa with the Parks until her birthday since your dad’s gone. Let her finish school with her friends.”

“Mick-”

“Gives us time to get her room ready at the house, anyway. She wants in with us instead of dorming when she gets to MIT.”

“ _Mick_ -”

“She’s been studying the public transit maps so hard, you’d think she was casing it.”

“Stop!”

Mick stopped, brows furrowed. “What?”

“You can’t...” Len sucked in a breath, held it, and let it go. “It’s _me_. You’re fine. You can’t just-”

“The fuck do you think I’m gonna do instead? This isn’t a damn retirement house in Boca, Snart.”

“It might as well be-”

“So you get to play puppet master instead now. Big deal.” Mick stared at him, bewildered. “We can probably figure out smaller jobs you can actually do once you’re better at moving around-”

“And get you caught,” Len cut in, angry. “Or were you planning on asking security guards where the ramp is so we can rob them after?”

“Was thinking more like hiding stuff with you while we work,” Mick said easily as he folded one of Len’s shirts and put it into the duffle bag. He’d be getting discharged in another couple days. “Kinda like your con with the diapers. No one looks twice at a guy buying diapers. You think anyone’s gonna point fingers at the guy in a wheelchair?”

He…may have had a point. But _still_. Did Mick not understand that partnering with him was going to slow him down? Get him caught? He opened his mouth to say it, to remind Mick that this was a horrible idea and what the _fuck_ was he thinking, when Mick said, “Besides, this means your dad’s not gonna bother coming around anymore. Lisa was never any good with his cons and he can’t drag you into his Family crap anymore.”

“None of that means you sticking around,” Len reminded him, loathe as he was to admit it. He’d just hold him back at this point. Mick was good at planning when Len’s brain went to the dark places and someone had to, but this… It was too much. Mick wasn’t actually his husband, he wasn’t even his boyfriend. They just… They were partners and there were benefits, but Len wasn’t even ready to think about how _that_ was going to change now.

“Why the fuck wouldn’t I?” Mick asked, confused.

“You can find another crew-”

“I don’t _want_ another crew. We do the jobs because they’re fun and _you_ get twitchy, remember? You’re the klepto,” Mick said. “As long as I can do my burns and get a fight in sometimes, I’m good.” He shrugged. “Besides, you wanted to try and get into forgeries too. No one’s stopping you. You paint ‘em, I’ll find fences. Maybe break into it myself if I get bored. I figured I’d get into cooking more, too. Haven’t gotten to do much of it lately.”

Len stared at him. “You have it all planned out.”

“You were unconscious for a week after.” Mick didn’t look at him, but Len could imagine the stormy look on his face. “Gave me a while to think.”

“And…you want this? It’s halfway to retirement.”

“I bought a house that _literally_ has a white picket fence, Snart. You don’t get much more _in_ than that.” Mick looked up and flashed him a smile that only looked a little shaky. “I’d be a shitty husband if I took off.”

“We aren’t married, Mick.”

Mick blinked at him. “What the hell do you think we did when we went to Amsterdam last year?”

“When we broke into the Van Gough museum?”

“And got married.”

Len opened his mouth. Closed it. Thought. Drinks warming their bodies. Laughing as the mayor went over vows in accented English. “That was _legal_?”

Mick gaped at him. “You thought it wasn’t?”

“It was April Fools!”

Mick covered his face with his hands and _groaned_.

The End


End file.
